


TFW There's a Gaysplosion and you were NOT invited! (How Rude!)

by Willow_bird



Series: on the tip of my tongue (say something) [5]
Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: Andreil from an outside perspective, Bisexual Matt Boyd, Bro-TP Matt and Nicky, Coming Out, Conversations about sexuality, Fluff, Friendship, M/M, Nicky Hemmick is the face of the Andreil fandom, Nicky Hemmick loves his twinyards so much, POV Nicky Hemmick, platonic comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-15
Updated: 2020-07-15
Packaged: 2021-03-05 02:20:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,474
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25286719
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Willow_bird/pseuds/Willow_bird
Summary: Nicky Hemmick loves his life. It's full of love and is incredibly gay, which means, obviously - it's perfect.---Fluffy drabble where Nicky stumbles across Renee and Allison being adorable, then learns some things about Matt, and then gets to witness some groundbreaking forward movement with Andrew and Neil ALL ON THE SAME DAY. OH, and Erik is coming to visit soon!*While this is technically a part of the 'on the tip of my tongue' series, it can absolutely be read as a standalone.*
Relationships: Allison Reynolds/Renee Walker (All For The Game), Matt Boyd & Nicky Hemmick, Matt Boyd/Danielle "Dan" Wilds, Neil Josten/Andrew Minyard, Nicky Hemmick/Erik Klose
Series: on the tip of my tongue (say something) [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1782130
Comments: 48
Kudos: 368





	TFW There's a Gaysplosion and you were NOT invited! (How Rude!)

**Author's Note:**

> Part of this scene takes place during the conversation between Andrew and Neil in the last scene of [Chapter 3: Thursday in ‘bite your tongue’](https://archiveofourown.org/works/24880435/chapters/60875305). That being said, you don’t actually have to have read any of ‘bite your tongue’ or ‘say something’ to enjoy this bit of fluff. Nicky is an internal rambler and any background/context you might need, he’ll likely fill you in on.

**Act One**   
_La La La Ladies in La La La Love_

Nicky Hemmick loved his life. No, really, he _loved_ his life. He had the most perfectest boyfriend to ever boyfriend, who was willing to wait for him for _years_ while he took care of his family and then got a degree in _another fucking country_. Not to say that he and Erik never had any problems, but like - he was always confident that they could work through whatever trouble they ran into. He had complete faith in Erik’s love for him. They both knew that the two of them? They were for-fucking-ever.

Of course, Erik was in Germany right now, BUT! _But!_ But. Nicky had just found out that Erik was going to be able to come down for _three whole fucking weeks_ around Christmas and New Years!!!!!!!!!!!

Let’s reiterate: !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hence, there were a lot of reasons why Nicky was the happiest little gay duckling in the whole goddamn world right now and he was bursting with the need to tell anyone and everyone. He had to share this UTTER PERFECTION, thank you. 

Now, his first thought was, of course, the Twinyards. His cousins were surly and sometimes kinda mean (and they’d probably team up to _actually_ and _legitimately_ kill him if they ever heard him utter the word “twinyard” in their presence, but like, hello - golden opportunity here and Nicky was never one to waste a clever flip of the tongue, gay you very much) BUT they were also his family and they knew he’d been hoping Erik would be able to come for the holiday. They were currently scattered to the winds a bit, though, and he felt the need to share this with them _together_ \- with Neil of course. Neil was _family_.

His next target was sweet sweet Matty Boyd. Ah, never was there ever a straight that shouldn’t have been straight. He was just too damn hot. At least he was a straight with the sense to go for a scrummy mama like Dan. That woman was a force of nature and she forever had his respect. Sure, they’d gotten off to a rocky start, but especially since the end of last year when he’d started spending more time around Matt and so around her and the other upperclassmen, he’d really come to admire her. If Matt _had_ to be straight, it may as well be with a literal queen. 

Nicky practically skipped on his way to Fox Tower. He was pretty sure Matt had a mostly free day on Thursdays, and even if he didn’t most of the Foxes took their lunch around the same block of time. If Matt wasn’t in his room then Nicky could text him and meet up with him for lunch and--

The sound of hushed giggles broke into his train of thought and Nicky almost tripped over himself in his haste to stop and look around. He had just climbed the front steps of the impressive monolith that was Fox Tower, poised at the expansive entrance just before the glass doors that would lead into the cozy lobby, and the giggles had come from just to his left. Right around the corner of the building and hidden behind some high privacy hedging was a small courtyard with stone tables and a lot of flowers - a sort of zen-type study or outdoor lounge area for the athletes to breathe in fresh air so they didn’t get overly aggressive or something. 

(Nicky had only half-read the pamphlet and that was over two years ago so…)

It wasn’t that people never hung out there, but that giggle had sounded weirdly familiar, and Nicky didn’t really pay all that close attention to girl-giggles, and that was definitely a tittering from a female of the species, which meant that it was probably from one of the members of his own team. He was pretty sure that none of the freshman girls even had the word ‘giggle’ in their vocabularies, which meant clearly the sound had to have come from Allison, Renee, or Dan. If it was Dan - then he’d found Matt! Neither Allison nor Renee seemed like gigglers, but y’know, he was entirely down for digging up some dirt. If either of them suddenly had a boyfriend he wanted to know about it. 

With a pleased grin, happy with his decision to unapologetically snoop, Nicky turned on his heel and crept closer to the hedge. He inched down the steps and hung back, barely peering around the corner…

His eyeballs just about fell out of his frick-frackin _skull!_

There, sitting at one of the stone tables, were Renee and Allison. Except Renee was sitting on the table itself and Allison was sitting on the bench just below her, neatly bracketed by the other woman’s knees. She was looking up into her face (no, into her _eyes_ ) and smiling like the rainbow in Renee’s hair was caused by the woman being the actual sun itself, casting light in a prism around her like a cloak. Renee was looking at Allison in a similar way. Moreover, she had her _hands_ cupping the other woman’s _face_ and they were leaning so close like they were about to start kissing! Or! Or! Like they had just finished!

Nicky instantly slapped a hand over his mouth so he didn’t make a noise and interrupt the moment before he got the chance to witness something even more obviously and beautiful gay (in the lady way).

Of course, the act of slapping his hand over his mouth was not exactly a silent one, and he was close enough that both Allison and Renee heard him. 

They looked over at him quickly, surprised, and Renee dropped her hands. Otherwise, neither made a move to distance themselves from one another. 

“Hello Nicky,” Renee said warmly, a welcoming smile on her face. “Done with your morning classes?”

Nicky let his hand drop away from his mouth and he grinned a bit sheepishly. “Yeah. I was just heading up to look for Matt. You guys were.. Uh…” He bounced a little on his toes, looking rapidly between them. 

Renee only smiled serenely and Allison raised a brow, her lips quirking into something of a smirk. 

“We were what?” Allison asked, like she didn’t know what he was referring to when she obviously did. 

Nicky rolled his eyes. “ _You_ know!” He pointed between them, then cupped his own face and mimed looking up into the face of Love Itself, sighing dramatically with a well-choreographed foot-pop for emphasis. 

Allison snorted. “I’m pretty sure neither of us did that, Hemmick.”

Nicky pouted and dropped his hands. “Guys! I mean! Girls! I mean! Women! Ladies!” He was _literally_ the poster child for GAY and if there was some beautiful gay lovey-doveyness happening around here it was one hundred percent his business. How did they not _get_ that?! How could he celebrate this if no one told him!?

Renee giggled softly behind her hand, and he recognized the sound from the one that had drawn his attention to this little clandestine rendezvous to begin with. He pointed at her dramatically. “AHA! See?”

“See… what?” Allison looked from Nicky to Renee, and when she looked up at the older girl her expression turned warm and gooey and it was so full of LOVE that Nicky made a quiet sound, pressing both hands over his heart. 

This drew their attention back to him - which made absolutely no sense at all to Nicky. Why in the world would either of those precious gay ladies in love look at _him_ when they could be staring into each other’s eyes!? Nicky lifted one hand and just flapped it wordlessly at them, but neither seemed to understand that this meant _’no! go back to being adorable together - don’t mind me!’_ and they both just looked at him strangely. 

Nicky huffed and threw his hands up. At this point he was going to have to run a seminar. He was going to call it “How to Be Gay and In Love and Adorable”. Clearly, he was the most qualified for all of the above. 

“Nevermind!” he announced and turned on his heel. He was using the Andrew-Neil Operation Romance Method, Step Two: _Evasion_. If he walked away now and pretended like he didn’t see anything, then they’d definitely be more willing to share their adorableness in the future. Admittedly, he was still working on Step One: _Don’t Make A Fuss_ but he just couldn’t _help_ himself sometimes.

* * *

**Act Two**   
_Bi-Bi-Boyd_

All sorts of aflutter, Nicky whirled into Matt’s room on a sigh and a dream. He wanted _so badly_ to talk about what he’d just seen down in the little courtyard (and they were rendezvousing in a _courtyard_ oh my GOD how precious was THAT!?) but Rule No. One about being gay was that you did NOT out other gays or questionings, especially not to a straight man on the same sports team. He could talk to Erik about it, for sure, because Erik didn’t _know_ the team, not really - and also Erik had Gay Husband status so Nicky absolutely was allowed to tell him everything.

Matt did _not_ have Gay Husband status, even though despite his straightness he’d probably be a pretty good one. As such, he could not tell dear, sweet, Matty Boyd about the adorable lesbians. 

Sigh.

“Hey Nicky,” Matt called from the area of the kitchen, and Nicky had to smile that Matt knew it was him here despite not actually knowing to expect him or having actually seen him yet. When Nicky entered the kitchen area, Matt looked over at him and flashed a grin that had Nicky smiling in return. “Morning classes go alright?”

“Yup,” Nicky confirmed with a nod, hopping up onto the counter after depositing his bag, letting his feet kick. Then he suddenly remembered why he was coming to look for Matt in the first place and he grinned, bouncing in his seat. “Oh! Actually! Even better! Well, no not the classes, BUT - Erik is going to be coming down for the holidays this year! I get him for three whole weeks!” His smile had stretched so wide he was sure Matt could see his heart through it but that was fine, love deserved to be shared. 

“Aw yeah man that’s awesome I’m so happy for you!” Matt grinned at him and turned more fully to face him, lifting a hand that Nicky eagly obliged with a high five. “I bet it’ll be great to see him, and I know how happy he makes you. You deserve that, you know?”

Something caught in his throat, or maybe in his chest, or maybe in his stomach - or maybe all three because it was kinda big and super emotional and he totally wasn’t expecting it. 

It wasn’t that he thought he didn’t deserve Erik (okay, so maybe sometimes he was _sure_ he didn’t), but it was more that… well, other than Erik - he wasn’t used to hearing stuff like that. And Matt was so genuine and sweet about it, too. Just, casually mentioning how he wanted Nicky to be happy and thought he deserved it like it was absolutely no big deal at all. 

Nicky had to swallow around the lump in his throat and the veritable jungle-gym in his chest. “Y-yeah,” he stammered out, then slapped on a grin and lifted his hands when Matt looked at him curiously. “I mean, of course - _obviously_ \- because I am literal perfection, so of course I deserve the perfect boyfriend/soon-to-be-husband-at-some-indeterminate-time-in-the-future.”

Matt raised both eyebrows at him, and Nicky grinned. He was usually better at covering up his slips than this. It was probably a combination of how much he was missing Erik, brought to the forefront by the news he’d get to see him in just a couple of months, and seeing Allison and Renee all secretly in love downstairs. He needed to up his game. 

“Y’know, Nicky… I really mean it. You’re pretty fucking fantastic. You deserve to be happy. You’ve done a hell of a lot to get here and just, I want you to know that I see that, yeah? And I admire it. Whoa, hey are you alright?”

This was when Nicky realized he was crying. Not like, big ugly sobbing tears or anything, but his eyes were wet and his face felt hot and his throat was so tight he kinda felt like he’d swallowed a baby cactus. 

“Uhhhhhh! Yeah!” He hurriedly wiped his face and laughed through his hands, tilting his head back and desperately trying to shove down the sudden flush of emotion. How the hell did Andrew _do it_ all the time, being so cool and blank like that?! “Sorry, I just, I’m so super excited to see Erik, you know? So like, my love is… like… flowing out of my eyeballs. Nothing to be alarmed about!”

There was a quiet moment then, and when Nicky pulled his hands away he saw that Matt looked thoughtful and concerned, though he was looking not at Nicky but at his own hand - which was partially reaching toward him in a half-aborted gesture. Nicky tilted his head curiously, definitely not worried at all that Matt was freaked out and so didn’t want to touch him or something. 

After another beat, Matt looked at him and asked, “Can I touch you? You look like you could use a hug.”

Nicky’s eyes widened, then he gave a small nod and felt his mouth stumble into a tiny smile. “Uh, yeah. I’d appreciate that.”

Matt smiled then, sweet and shy and puppy-dog adorable, and Nicky’s heart melted just a little bit (okay a lot-a bit) as the big guy stepped forward between Nicky’s legs and wrapped his arms around him. Nicky held on tight as well, hiding his face against his friend’s neck as he took a few deep breaths. Matt was a good hugger, in part because he was so big and solid, but also because you could really feel how much he cared. He hugged you with each one of his many many muscles and it was just pretty much absolutely wonderful. 

After a moment they both relaxed and Matt stepped back. He punched Nicky gently on the arm and grinned. “Feeling better?”

“Yeah,” Nicky said with a sheepish laugh, running his fingers back through his hair. “Sorry about that. I guess I’m just like, super emotional about Erik coming around, y’know?” Matt looked like he was going to say something to that, but Nicky wasn’t sure he wanted to talk about it so he barrelled on. “What was that just now, by the way? You know you can always give me hugs. Your muscles on me? Yes please. I’ll take a double-order with fries.” He flashed a grin, nudging the conversation back toward something more playful.

Matt laughed, and he was so cute when he was being sheepish. “Yeah, I just. Andrew... had a chat with me a little bit ago.” Nicky’s eyes widened here and he instinctively scanned for stab wounds. Matt must have realized what he was doing because he laughed and shook his head. “Ah, no, it’s fine. He didn’t actually stab me, and he only even pulled the knife because I said something stupid. I’ve just been worried about Neil, you know? But, I haven’t been… I guess I haven’t been helping in the way I thought I was. So I’m trying to be… better about things.”

Ah, yeah okay that made sense. Neil was a lot like Andrew. When he was going through something the absolute worst thing you could do was try to get him to talk about it or crowd in on his space. Matt liked to fix things. He didn’t like his friends being hurt or sad, and he was such a genuine softie that seeing Neil all lost and wounded made him want to reach out. Except with Neil, when you did that, it only spooked him even more because he didn’t know how to fully process the fact that people actually legitimately _cared_ about him. When Neil was hurting, he perceived every emotional expression that came his way as some kind of threat - probably because for his whole life that’s all he ever got, _especially_ when he was soft and vulnerable. That’s why he gravitated even more towards Andrew, because Andrew didn’t put any sort of emotional pressure on Neil even when Neil was on the top of his game. 

See? Nicky noticed things. He’d also been around the twins (around Andrew) for long enough to know how to navigate around those sorts of _bad days_. Mostly, Nicky kept his distance and offered small things when he could - like making breakfast or keeping it quiet in the dorm - and left Andrew and Neil to each other since they seemed to be able to lean on each other best.

Thinking back to Tuesday, Nicky realized that while he and Aaron (and even Kevin) had put themselves as a buffer between the team and Andrew - Neil must have been having a pretty sore day too. Nicky had noticed but, well, he’d kinda been focused on Andrew and had sort of assumed that the others would take care of Neil. Apparently Andrew hadn’t thought they’d done a good enough job of it - which was as sweet as it was kinda terrifying. 

“You’re a really good friend, you know that Matt?” Nicky said after a moment of thought, nudging the other backliner with his toe at the surprised look on his face. “It takes a lot to admit you might not be doing the right thing and then to change yourself to try and fix it.” He grinned and nudged him again. “Lookit you, growing up so fast! I’m so proud.” He mimed wiping a tear away, then laughed as Matt shoved him lightly. 

“For the record, I’ll answer anytime you want to ask - but you don’t have to ask about hugs and comfort and stuff with me. It’s important to Andrew and Neil, like _super_ important to them, especially to Andrew and to Neil moreso on his bad days, but like… I love your hugs and it makes me feel really good when you want to, like, you know, be there.” He gave a small shrug, then grinned as Matt stepped forward again and wrapped him up in another hug, laughing against his (incredibly defined, muscular, scrummy) shoulder. 

“Alright,” Matt said with a laugh as he stepped back. “I’ll keep it in mind.”

Nicky jumped off the counter and hip-checked him with a grin. “Good. We’re finally getting to the point where I can commandeer hugs from you without your girlfriend-slash-literal-goddess Dan Wilds looking like she’s gonna gut me.” He adored Dan, he did. He was also mildly terrified of her. Like, he had a pretty strong resistance to intimidation after living with Andrew “I will cheerfully knife you” Minyard, but Dan had her own sort of “I will chew you up and spit you out and then you will thank me for the privilege” vibe he had to respect. 

Matt chuckled and looked even a little guilty. “Sorry about that. That was kinda my fault to begin with.”

“Ooooh?” Nicky raised a finely shaped brow at him. 

“Yeah, she’s always known I was bisexual you know? And it’s never bothered her, but I think she started to feel a little threatened by you once we started to hang out more.”

Nicky blinked. Then he blinked again. He just sorta kept blinking until he gave the whole room a strobe effect. 

“Come again?”

“She trusts me! She knows we’d never _do_ anything. But like, she got to meet my ex-boyfriend over the summer during Pride who I’m still really friendly with and, well, we had a long chat about it.”

Something wasn’t quite computing. Nicky could _swear_ he was standing here in Matt’s dorm, talking to him, and the conversation was about Matthew Boyd. What wasn’t exactly processing was all this information about Matthew Donovan Cute-Butt Boyd being _bisexual_ instead of iredeemably straight. Apparently he was just irredeemably _monogamous_.

“Nope, yup, hold on. When were you going to tell me you were bi?” He tried, he really did try, not to sound accusatory. 

It was Matt’s turn to blink. “You didn’t know?”

Deep breath. Sigh. “No, Matthew, I did not know. How was I supposed to _know_ about that? Does Neil know? Does _Andrew_ know?” He gasped. “Are you and Neil and Andrew and Renee and Allison all having rainbow pajama parties without me!? How could you!?”

Matt laughed, which wasn’t fair because he wasn’t being funny! He was _in distress!_ “Yeah, Neil knows. I guess Andrew knows? I kinda assume that if Neil knows something Andrew knows it too - but it’s not like Andrew is gonna care or say anything to anyone I’d rather didn’t know.” Meaning the bitch-ass freshmen with all their repressed homoeroticism (looking at you, Caleb) or general homophobic tendancies. 

“You never told _me_ though, Matt. Why did you think I knew?” He was so lost.

Matt gave a small shrug. “You wanted to hang out a lot more, and were so much more comfortable around me I guess I just sorta… assumed that you’d figured it out or that Neil had said something.” He didn’t seem particularly bothered by that, so Nicky decided not to be either. The more important thing here was that _clearly_ a gaysplosion was happening within the Foxes and Nicky’s invite had gotten lost in the mail. 

“Hey, wanna see some pictures of me and Dan with Lincoln and Charlie at New York Pride?” 

Nicky snapped out of his momentary stupor and fixed Matt with an incredulous look. “Matthew Donovan Boyd do not ask such ridiculous questions, of _course_ I fucking do.”

* * *

**Act Three**   
_All for the Gay_

Legit five minutes later, Nicky was bounding into his own dorm with a phone full of adorably sparkly pictures of Matt and Dan and their cute friends from New York Pride over the summer. He zeroed in on Neil and Andrew in excitement, already waving his phone in the air.

“Ooh! Good! You’re both here!” Neil was obviously going to find Matt’s pictures adorable, and even if Andrew didn’t say anything he was sure that he’d get a kick out of them. 

He paused, though, as they pair of them suddenly stood up, Andrew tugging Neil into the kitchen by the wrist. The expression on Neil’s face was tight and Nicky felt a flash of worry slam into his chest. “Oh no! What happened?” He hurried after them. “Neil are you okay?”

Andrew had turned on the faucet and was holding Neil’s hand under it and Nicky’s little gay heart was absolutely exploding already by all that sweet tenderness and care, enough that his worry was totally gone by the time Andrew addressed him. 

“Someone does not know how to open the door like a normal person,” Andrew said in that ‘I’m only acting like I’m calm but I’m not calm’ sort of deadpan. The glare in his eyes was sharp, but Nicky had built up a certain amount of immunity. “You made Neil spill his tea.” And now Andrew was hovering, holding his hand under cold water, fussing and being adorably in love, and Nicky couldn’t SAY ANYTHING ABOUT IT or he would RUIN IT. 

Andrew-Neil Operation Romance Method, Step Three: _Distraction!_

“Oops, sorry Neil. But _listen!_ You won’t _believe_ what I just saw!” Aha! There! Neil smiled at him and nodded for him to tell his story, which meant that Andrew was no longer going to focus on him, which meant that he had successfully distracted them from the fact that he had just witnessed them being adorable and loving and now they could _go back to being adorable and loving_. The key here, now, was to _keep talking_. Luckily, Nicky was very good at this. 

He would have to save the pictures for later, though, because that would mean showing Neil his phone and he’d be in their space. Step Two: _Evasion_ clearly stated that he must give them physical space to be their adorable selves.

So he instead launched into a retelling of some drama from his morning class. Okay, he _may_ have embellished a little bit. But he kept himself talking and he kept himself moving, gesturing grandly as he acted out how one of the hot-stuff swimmers from the floor below them had totally been practicing what had to have been interpretive dance moves (or maybe figure skating?) in the stairwell. He kept talking even as he saw Neil turn toward Andrew out of the corner of his eye, catching the edge of his shirt before the other man could fully escape. 

Andrew turned back to Neil and they just… _stared_ at each other. 

Nicky kept talking, he barely even knew what he was saying at this point, he was just rambling on. One minute passed. Two. Three. How the fuck could these dumb gayboys stare that deeply into each other’s eyes for almost four straight minutes and not realize how obvious they were being about how stupidly in love they were? The whole world stopped when it was just the two of them, and though it looked different than the way he was with Erik he knew love when he saw it, dammit. 

When Andrew finally pulled away and Neil turned back to give his attention back to Nicky, Nicky latched onto it and whipped out his phone because he had honestly stopped paying attention to his own words and had no idea what he’d just been saying. 

“And so look! Look look look! Matt just sent these to me!”

They spent the next ten minutes or so looking at the pictures. Nicky did all the talking, but Neil didn’t seem to mind and Nicky didn’t try to get him to say anything. He held off on suggesting they all go to Pride together next year, though he really really wanted to. There would be a lot of crowds and, well, considering it had been a rough week for both Neil and Andrew he didn’t want to put that pressure on them just yet. But! Maybe next semester he could bring it up when they all started talking about summer plans. 

After he shooed Neil back into the living room to (hopefully) get back to cuddling with his boyfriend (that’s what they _were_ dammit!), Nicky fussed aimlessly around the kitchen for a minute or so before deciding to make himself lunch. Clearly, this called for tacos. 

Once Nicky had the meat cooking he dug around in the cabinet for some taco seasoning that he absolutely _knew_ that they had for a solid five minutes before finally admitting he couldn’t find it. It was here. Somewhere. He knew it was. But _where?_

Intending to pop into the living room to ask Andrew and Neil (he needed some come up with some cool celebrity couple name for them, he knew there was one in there somewhere), Nicky headed out of the kitchen, but he slowed as he heard Andrew’s voice. He stopped completely when he registered the words. 

“We are not nothing.” That… that was definitely Andrew’s voice. Was that really Andrew’s voice legitimately acknowledging his and Neil’s relationship, though? Not that either of them actually _denied_ it, but like… there were huge bets going around whether the two of them were hate-fucking or what (Nicky knew it was LOVE even if no one else could wrap their brains around it dammit) and Andrew was just enough of a chaos-demon to give neither encouragement nor denial. 

“We are together.” Oh. My. God. Internal screaming commence!!!! Nicky took a slow, shaky breath and pressed a hand calmly but firmly over his mouth so he didn’t made a damn sound as he huddled against the division wall, peeking out at the two other men where they sat on the couch. He vaguely saw that Andrew’s hands were moving as he spoke, and he figured it had to do with whatever sign language he and Neil were learning. “You stand by me. I stand by you. That is how this works, Neil.”

Nicky’s mind was racing so fast that it was running into walls and still wasn’t slowing down. He didn’t even mind the building headache or the burn in his lungs that told him he should _probably_ start to breathe soon but like, _how!?_ Here he was, minding his own business, making tacos, and here were Andrew and Neil, who had both been through so much and deserved _so fucking much_ , just confessing their undying love for each other in the living room! 

Okay. Okay. Time to calm down. Slow breaths. Slow, _quiet_ breaths. He could do this. 

Nicky carefully took a few deep breaths and calmed himself down. It was difficult, because he was jittery and excited and he wanted to throw a party, but Neil and Andrew weren’t really party-kinda-people. Plus, doing that would break up the moment and Nicky did not want to break up this little bit of wonderful right here. Hell no. Not after the week these boys had had so far, and not with how hard it must have been for Andrew to say those things _out loud_. But apparently it was so important he wanted to make sure that Neil heard it. Nicky wasn’t an idiot, okay, this was B I G.

“That’s a really stupid word,” Andrew complained with a scoff and Nicky frowned, focusing back on the paid. He’d gotten so caught up in his own little world he hadn’t realized that the conversation had continued on without him. Neil wasn’t talking out loud, but was signing instead, and Andrew was talking back. It was so cute how they always found a way to communicate!

Neil signed something slowly, looking almost confused, his head tilted adorably to the side. 

Andrew shrugged. “Partners works.”

_Partners._ That. That… that was what Erik called them. What he called _them_ , Nicky and him. Partners. Nicky preferred the word boyfriend (well, honestly, he preferred _husband_ but he’d take what he could get at this point) but he knew it held the same sort of gravitas.

Which meant...

BOYFRIENDS! BOYFRIENDS IN LOVE! AHHHHHHHHH! His little cousin, his hurting, sweet, angry, lonely, stabby baby cousin has found LOVE and he’s ACCEPTING IT and this was AMAZING!

At this point, Nicky felt like he was gonna pass out but he somehow managed to keep himself steady as Neil signed something back at Andrew that… were the tips of Andrew’s ears turning pink? Oh. My. God. Was he _blushing!?_

“I hate you,” Andrew rasped out, and dammit if it didn’t sound a hell of a lot more like _’I love you, you beautiful devil you, lets have babies together and chase mobsters away with pointy knives’_.

Nicky took two quick steps back to duck fully into the kitchen. With both hands pressed firmly over his mouth he did a quick little dance because he had to express his excitement _somehow_ and if he made any noise whatsoever they would _know_ and he couldn’t have that! No, no no no, it was time to move on to Andrew-Neil Operation Romance Method, Step 4: _Food_. 

The meat was still on the stove and he hurriedly tended to it. Okay, so it would be a little bit crispy. He found the taco seasoning in the silverware drawer (he blamed Kevin) and got to work. The hard shells were half broken but there were more of those than there were flour tortillas for soft shells, so he broke them up into smaller pieces, added all the taco ingredients together into one big jumble, and called it taco salad. Not bad for a quick lunch, honestly. 

“Hey guys, there’s taco salad if you want any!” he called out from the kitchen without actually moving toward the living room, letting them come to him. 

Nicky was sure to be super chill as the other two came into the kitchen, and it seemed he pulled it off well because neither of them seemed suspicious. And when Neil held up his phone and pointed to Nicky, then to Andrew, it only took a moment for Nicky to realize he was asking Nicky to show Andrew the pictures he’d gotten from Matt. Andrew’s expression didn’t really change much as they ate and as Nicky showed off the pictures, but he looked at each one and he listened. Nicky even pretended not to notice them holding hands under the table. 

Because this was his family, and they were healing, and they were here - and sometimes they even let him be a part of it. 

Yeah, he had a pretty fucking awesome life.


End file.
